I recently bought a new Surface Pro 4. I run on battery often and configure the display’s brightness to 25% (with adaptive brightness disabled) to conserve battery.
With adaptive brightness disabled, my display would still occasionally darken or lighten unexpectedly, often to an uncomfortable level. After some experimentation, the trigger turned out to be what was visible on the screen. Darker content resulted in the display darkening, and lighter content resulted in the display brightening.
After some research, the culprit turned out to be Intel Display Power Saving Technology or DPST. The design of this Intel feature is precisely what I experienced: to save power by adjusting the display brightness depending on how dark or light the content on screen is.
While well intentioned, I found the experience incredibly disruptive given its slow and choppy transition and the uncomfortably dark end result. With my display brightness configured to 25% already, you can imagine how any darker might be uncomfortable, especially in adverse lighting conditions.
While on older desktops you could disable DPST via Intel’s driver configuration software, this software isn’t available on the Surface line with the recommended graphics drivers. While some might have success installing the latest available drivers and software from Intel directly, the steps can be complicated to replace the recommended drivers, and you risk introducing more problems with an untested configuration. My options seemed limited to living with it.
Fortunately, via work channels, I discovered an obscure registry key that can enable or disable Intel graphics features with the recommended graphics drivers.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000] "FeatureTestControl"=dword:00009240
The FeatureTestControl registry key is a bit field where each bit represents a feature. A value of 0 indicates the feature is enabled, and a value of 1 indicates the feature is disabled. The Intel graphics driver reads this registry key on initialization to determine which features to enable. The bit corresponding to DPST is the fifth bit from the right.
To disable DPST, you’ll need to set the DPST bit to 1. If the value of the registry key is 9240 as shown above, simply replace it with 9250. If the value on your system differs and you are unsure if DPST is already disabled, enter the existing hex value into Calculator’s Programmer mode (select HEX before entering the number) and switch to its bit toggling keypad to check the value of the DPST bit (position 4). If it is already set to 1, then DPST is already disabled. If not, click the bit to toggle it to 1, then copy the updated hex value into the registry. If updated correctly, the only number that should be different is the 4 (or whatever number was in that position), and it should be odd (or b, d, or f for the hex representation of 11, 13, or 15).
Reboot to ensure the graphics driver reconfigures itself, and DPST will be disabled.
Note: OS updates appear to reset the FeatureTestControl registry key back to its default value. If you notice that DPST has been reenabled, you’ve likely taken an OS update and will need to reconfigure the value in the registry again. Also, the registry key may be under […\0001] rather than […\0000] depending on the system and OS version installed.
Do you have any info on what each bit represents? The 5th from the right is the power saving, but is there one for adaptive contrast enhancement? Thanks for the informative post.
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Thank you so much! Been searching forever for a solution to turn this annoying feature off.
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My surface pro 4 “feature Test Control” is 9240 (Not 9a40).
To which number should I change it?
Many Thanks for this helpful post
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I FOUND IT FROM 9240 to 9250.
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Thank you so much Mike. A 25-percenter myself, I was beginning to lose it. You’ve made my day!
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Hi Mike, All,
thanks for posting this solution. I have previously applied it on my surface and it has worked perfectly.
now i also want to disable this feature on my PC (Dell), and i’m getting hex value 8200. I have tried calculator, but it looks like Chinese to me.
Could you help me to obtain the right hex value ?
thank you so much!
greets
Peter
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8210
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Hi Ray, Could you please help me out here? I’m getting since recently (drive update) value of c200 in the FeatureTestControl.. which value shall i replace it with? Thank you,
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Works fine on my desktop, just a footnote though – current control set 001 in the registry key refers to the balanced power plan so you need to pick that one in control pannel – after that your golden.
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Thank you so much!
It was driving me nuts…
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Not working after creators update on Surface Book. Or just me?
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i think you just have to do all the steps again.. this is my impression from the article.
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i can’t tell you how helpful this article is. i’ve searched through countless forums and all they ever talk about is the adaptive brightness feature or power settings. both of which have nothing to do with this particular issue. this is now the third time i have used this article because windows updates tend to reset this registry key.
i’ve actually clipped this post in my evernote for faster reference in the future. i wanted to make sure i said thank you, though, because MAN have you made my video streaming life much better. haha.
i can’t thank you enough, mike. cheers.
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anyone know how to get the camera to stop adjusting brightness automatically, as well?
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Thanks! I wanted to note that on my Surface Pro (5th gen) it was under 0001 not 0000:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
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Thanks Nick – this was helpful (from a fellow 5th gen owner)
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You are a hero, thank you so much! Worked on SP4 as well. Changing to 9250 in 0000 didn’t work.
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Hi Nick, I also have a 5th gen so would like to use your solution.
I’m a newbie to this coding portion, where do I go to put your above info into?
Thank you for your help.
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Man, I was expiriencing the same issue on my new 2017 Surface Pro. Thanks so much for sharing this valuable tip, much appreciated! Works perfectly there, too. Take care!
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Thank you! Just fixed my Lenovo Yoga’s display!
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i’m getting now c200 value.. which one shall i use in order to replace it? (sorry, really bad with math)
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Give that man a cookie….! You should be hired by Intel.
For those that have C200 ( as I had) value just replace with C208
I fixed that to my Surface Pro 2 windows 10.
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Well after a driver update C210 works for me now…
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nice one thanks a bunch
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Thank you ! it fixed my Xiaomi notebook pro !
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Mine says 8200, how do I disable it? Thanks
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I found this solution last week and was delighted. A Windows update I installed today rendered it ineffective. I cannot even find the same “FeatureTestControl” key under the same branch of the Registry. If you happen to know where it moved I and many others who benefited from this solution will be grateful.
Thank you,
Cemal
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In answer to my own question, the key has moved from the 0000 branch to the 0001 branch under the same registry entry with the same hex value.
Cemal
PS you may just ignore my message and after validating my finding just update your instructions for others to benefit.
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Thanks, it worked great on my Surface Pro 4 (2016)
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I tried this about a week ago on my Surface Book 2 and it worked perfectly, but there was an update yesterday and now it doesn’t work. Someone please help me, this is so annoying 😦
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Liz, a few comments above yours is my comment similar to this and the fix I found. In the registry, the key in question changes. You may need to look a little above, a little below, … and find where it should be changed.
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In my SB2 it was 0002 (the same key FeatureTestControl was in 0000 and in 0002). Setting bit 4 to 1 in 0002 key’s value solved just the problem.
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I am very confused on how to do this. I have a Razer Blade Stealth 13 and I really need to fix this problem ASAP. If someone can please help me out, that would be great.
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Elijah, if you are confused by the instructions I would not recommend you try this fix. The edit of the Windows Registry, if not done right can render your device unusable. Ask a friend who is knowledgeable about these matters.
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Cemal Elkin, Thanks its working for me, appreciate your efforts for writing the blog.
Its really helpful !
A background : i was facing this issue on my recently bought SP 2018 128gb 8gb RAM.
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Mike Battista ! Just realised it was you ! 🙂
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hi my acer v3-571g windows 10 latest version and have same issue.
the 0000\FeatureTestControl is set to f000.
how to change it?
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Right click enter as hex 9250 – note control set changes with the power plan selected in control pannel -power options in windows 7 /10
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What is really annoying is that every time there is an update that involves the graphics this value is reset back to its “original” value. I have reset it at least three times, the first time it was harder because they moved the location of the key to the next block. This feature is really bad for photographers like me because depending on the image tonality the screen brightness changes. That is a definite no-no in color managed workflow.
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Of course, the feature is nonsense any way you look at it. One has to be either blind or really tolerant to live with it.
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The Best Solution, Worked like a charm!!!!
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Thank you for this post, finally resolved this for me, was driving me nuts.
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managed to get onto the registry editor but I don’t know what to do from there! Can anyone give me a step by step please?
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Click on the Edit tab and then Find… (or Ctrl+F) and search for FeatureTestControl. It will highlight that registry, right-click on it, select Modify… and replace 9240 with 9250. Hit OK and then restart.
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Thank you so much! Worked a treat!
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Thank you so much. you made my day. godspeed!
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Thx, great work.
Lenovo Legion Y530-15ich
have canged from “FeatureTestControl”=dword:00008200
to “FeatureTestControl”=dword:00008210
and happinez
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Hi, I am trying this on a new Dell, changing 8200 to 8210 is having no effect. Someone said above that this only changes the “balanced” power plan, but that’s the one I have active. Is there anything else that could be preventing the fix from working? I can see that it has worked for most people and they are rightly grateful!
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For anyone else searching this topic, I found that in the same location […\0000] , my registry was set to 200, not any of the above values, of course.
Using a calculator to change the bit 5th from right gives a value of 210. After inputting this and restarting, it worked!
For reference, I am on a 2019 Windows Surface Pro 7, Windows 10, 10th gen Intel i7, 16 Gb RAM.
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i don’t know why it isn’t working for me. I have i5 10th gen too
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Thank you!
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I was completely lost on how to do any of this. For any newbies like myself who find themselves on this page, do a quick youtube search of “how to edit Microsoft registry”. This page will make a lot more sense after watching a video or two. It looks intimidating but you can do it!
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New update for windows just rolled out on my Surface Book 2, it changed the location to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002.
So if it stops working and you can’t find it, try \0002.
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So for anyone dealing with issue on other products in 2020 and perhaps wound up here, the same regedit location is applicable (sometimes \0001 instead of \0000) but all I’ve had to do is add 10 to the current hex there – so 8300 became 8310 – and the issue stopped after a restart.
I’ve used this both on my Microsoft Surface Go and my Lenovo x1 carbon Gen8. No more color adjustment/dimming! And on other issues or repercussions.
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Thank you so much for sharing this! This was driving me crazy and it worked perfectly on my msi laptop. You are a saint.
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Windows just updated itself to 2004 and brought the problem back… and brought a new one with it. Now the lowest brightness setting (0% to 5%) jumps to 100% brightness. Not fun at night!
Changing the value (again, for like the 14th time since I bought my Surface Book 2) fixed both the dimming and the full brightness on the lowest setting. Thank you!
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My value is 1200… I tried lots of combinations (1210, 1A00,1208…) And none is working ☹️.
Could you help me please??
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1210 should be correct
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Thanks, I used this on surfacebook (1st gen with i5-6300U and nvidia gpu), last folder was 0001 rather than 0000, everything else was the same.
This was pissing me off for ages trying to watch anything or work in bed, having never found the settings in power saving or in intel control panel. Settings google told me to change were just not there!
Baffling that they’d make a feature literally nobody wants so difficult to disable. Why would I want dark screens darker and white screens brighter?? If anything have it the other way around with a smooth transition.
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Thank You! Latest windows 10 update on Surface Pro 1796 brought it back. As a imagery professional this is a must (not) have. Microsoft and Intel should address this. All the best to you Mike Battista.
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Mike, I love you and want to marry you. It took me months of searching to disable this for AMD and eventually I did find a software solution somehow by installing all sorts of AMD software. I didn’t get to that stage yet, but I was close. Glad I read the note at the bottom – that was the final key (I was editing FeatureScore thinking they renamed it). Dell G7 Dynamic Adaptive Contrast Brightness is now disabled! Thank God. A year of frustrations finally gone.
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Wow. Thank you so much! Years on and this helped me with an old Lenovo after the latest Windows update. Tried installing the Intel drivers and graphics control panel but the installer said my system didn’t meet minimum specs. After an hour and a half of frustration I found your blog. Did the trick nicely. Thank you again!
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Don’t understand why people want to marry this guy, when all he did is save us from insanity of dimming display so we don’t see anything when showing dark content and blinding us when a bright content page pops up, working exaclty contrary to common sense…. YES, THANK YOU! On every new computer I need to get this bookmarked page and do the change. Latest Windows 10 requires dword:00001200 -> 1210 for me, in key \0001.
Mike, you’re still an internet hero.
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are you sure about 1210? according to my hex calculations, it doesn’t match the author’s instructions for binary
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Didn’t do the math, just changed the second from end from 0 to 1, so 1210. It does work on my HP Zbook.
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